My research into where the cricketers from the 2006 U19 World Cup are now. In total, there were 141 players from the 10 full member nations at the tournament. 46 of those 141 have gone on to play international cricket; 135 have played domestically but only 124 of them have played any type of professional cricket in the last 2 years. When i say professional cricket, it doesn't necessarily mean a First-Class, List A, T20 match but any match that is recognised by Cricinfo.
Out of Australia's squad of 14, 6 have gone onto play internationals - they are Moises Henriques, Aaron Finch, Tom Cooper (for Netherlands), Usman Khawaja, Matthew Wade and David Warner. 6 of those 14 have just played domestically - they are Jackson Bird, Ben Cutting, Jon Holland, Simon Keen, William Sheridan and Tom Stray. 2 players never went onto play any domestic cricket, those unfortunate one's are Jack McNamara and Adam Ritchard. The former is the only 1 of the 14 to not have played professional cricket in the last 2 years. The Aussies have definitely benefitted from this U19 squad as they found several internationals and a few that are currently in the A team.
Bangladesh also profited from this tournament, half of their squad have now played international cricket - those players are Dolar Mahmud, Mehrab Hossain jnr, Mushfiqur Rahim, Raqibul Hasan, Shakib Al Hasan, Suhrawadi Shuvo and Tamim Iqbal. All 14 players that were part of this squad went onto play domestically, the 7 that have only played domestic cricket include Ishraq Sonet, Kazi Kamrul Islam, Mehdi Hasan, Nabil Samad, Rezaul Islam, Shamsur Rahman, Sirajullah Khadim. Rezaul and Sirajullah are the only 2 not to have played in the last 2 years. They will be very pleased with how their players from this squad progressed - Shakib, Mushfiqur and Tamim are all legends of Bangladeshi cricket now.
England will be the most disappointed out of all 10 full member nations as none of their squad have gone on to represent their country at a higher level. England had 15 in their squad due to one player getting injured yet none of them played internationally despite them all playing at domestic level. Those 15 are Moeen Ali, Varun Chopra, Rory Hamilton-Brown, Nick James, Richard Jones, Andrew Miller, Steven Mullaney, John Simpson, Mark Stoneman, Huw Waters, Graeme White, Greg Wood, Robert Woodman, Ben Wright and Mark Nelson. Apart from Chopra, Moeen and Hamilton-Brown, none of them have even been considered for national or Lions selection. Wood is the only one not to have played in the last couple of years. All in all, a very poor squad and it's not surprising they didn't reach the final.
4 of India's squad have now played international cricket. Those 4 are Piyush Chawla, Cheteshwar Pujara, Rohit Sharma and Ravindra Jadeja. They are all still in the selector's thoughts and haven't faded away since their early call ups. All 14 members have played domestically and played in the last 2 years, the 10 that have just played domestic cricket are Ravikant Shukla, Mayank Tehlan, Debabrata Das, Pinal Shah, Abu Nechim, Shahbaz Nadeem, Mohnish Parmar, Saurabh Bandekar, Gourav Dhiman and Yo Mahesh. Most of them are relatively unknown although a few of them have put in decent performances in the IPL. Apart from the main 4, none of them are close to selection at the moment.
New Zealand will be fairly disappointed with their squad despite finding 4 internationals (Hamish Bennett, Martin Guptill, Ronnie Hira and Tim Southee). Only Guptill is a regular in all 3 formats while the other 3 have been in and out of the team. Of the 10 that haven't played internationally, only 7 have played at domestic level. Those 7 are Todd Astle, Dean Bartlett, Andrew de Boorder, Jason Donnelly, Ronald Karaitiana, Colin Munro and Kieran Noema-Barnett. The 3 that haven't played domestically are captain Mark Ellison, Nicholas Fitzgerald and Shaun Fitzgibbon. Fitzgerald is the only one out of the 14 who hasn't played any sort of cricket in the last 2 years.
Pakistan, despite winning the World Cup, will be probably be quite unhappy with how their squad has gone since the tournament. Only 4 (Sarfraz Ahmed, Nasir Jamshed, Rameez Raja and Anwar Ali) have played international cricket and none of those are regulars although they have all been picked in the national squad over the last year. All 14 went onto play domestic cricket, those players (apart from the ones named above) are Ali Asad, Ali Khan, Imad Wasim, Jamshed Ahmed, Mohammad Faheem, Usman Malik, Riaz Kail, Mohammad Ibrahim, Akhtar Ayub and Mohammad Laeeq. Faheem, Malik, Ibrahim and Laeeq haven't played in the last couple of last years. For a squad that achieved so much at this World Cup, it seems surprising that none of them have developed into quality cricketers.
3 of South Africa's squad have now played internationals although that could soon be 4 as Dean Elgar is likely to play in the upcoming ODI series. The 3 capped players are Craig Kieswetter, Richard Levi and Wayne Parnell. Kieswetter, however, went on to represent England and not South Africa. All members of the squad have played domestic cricket, those players (apart from the 4 above) are Craig Alexander, PIeter Daneel, Richard das Neves, Grant Mokoena, Romano Ramoo, Mafiniki Serame, Mthokozisi Shezi, Malusi Siboto, Jean Symes and Brett Thompson. Daneel, Serame and Thompson haven't played of late. It's a shame for South Africa that they lost Daneel as he was their 2nd highest run scorer.
Out of Sri Lanka's 14, 3 have gone onto play at the highest level. They are Angelo Mathews, Dimuth Karunaratne and Thisara Perera. The former and the latter have the potential to become quality all-rounders so Sri Lanka can be fairly pleased with how this squad turned out. The 11 other players (Sameera Soysa, Sachithra Serasinghe, Hans Fernando, Dilhan Cooray, Shalika Karunanayake, Sachith Pathirana, Chathupama Gunasinghe, Rajeeva Weerasinghe, Ashan Priyanjan, Prabuddha Perera and Malinga Pushpakumara) have all played domestic cricket and apart from Prabuddha, they are all still playing.
West Indies profited the most from this World Cup as 8 of their 14 have now been capped internationally. Those 8 are Leon Johnson, Jason Mohammed, Andre Fletcher, Nelon Pascal, Kemar Roach, William Perkins, Sunil Narine, Kieron Pollard. 5 of that 8 are out of the frame right now but Roach and Narine are regulars in all 3 formats whilst Pollard is in the ODI and T20 side. Richard Ramdeen, Gajanand Singh, Javon Searles, Sharmarh Brooks, Rishi Bachan went onto play domestic cricket. Bachan doesn't play anymore though. Andre McCarthy never played domestically and hasn't played any cricket since the World Cup, he looks like he's gone for good.
7 of Zimbabwe's squad have played internationally although 2, Sean Williams and Ryan Higgins, have subsequently retired. The 5 internationals that are still going are Chamu Chibhabha, Graeme Cremer, Friday Kasteni, Keegan Meth and Ian Nicolson. All members of that squad have played domestic cricket, they are Gary Ballance, Roland Benade, Tarisai Mahlunge, Prince Masvaure, Taurai Tapfumaneyi, Donald Samunderu and Glen Querl. Ballance, a great talent, is looking to play for England so unless he has a change of heart, Zimbabwe will miss out. Samunderu doesn't play anymore so that takes the tally of retired players up to 3. They have benefiitted from this U19 squad but in general, they won't be too happy that they've lost over a quarter of their squad.
To see around a 1/3 of the cricketers (from the 10 full member nations) go on to play at the highest level is a great achievement and proves that the U19 World Cup is a good platform for the upcoming youngsters. Even though none of England's 15 have played Test/ODI/T20I cricket yet, they have had 2 internationals who have came from this World Cup: Craig Kieswetter of South Africa and Eoin Morgan of Ireland (isn't counted as one of the 46 in the first paragraph as he wasn't playing for a full member in this tournament). I think it's good to look back at previous U19 World Cup's and see where the players are now. They obviously all showed promise at youth level so it's interesting to see how many went that step further.
All stats correct up to the 15th of August 2012.
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